Mona Lee Wilson is one of the six women that Robert Pickton was found guilty of murdering.xx
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Sereena Abotsway is one of the six women that Robert Pickton was found guilty of murdering.xx
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Georgina Papin was one of six women murdered by Robert Pickton.Handout
/ CanWest News Service

OTTAWA — After years hearing the gruesome details again and again, Cynthia Cardinal says her nightmare finally ended Friday when Canada's top court shutdown Robert Pickton's bid for a new trial in the killing of six women, including her sister, Georgina Papin.

"I'm so glad we don't have to go back to court," Cardinal said. "That's his last card now and it's denied. He's never getting out, and I'm very happy about that. We can move on."

It was a day of tears, relief, anger and even apologies Friday as the final legal chapter was written in one of Canada's most notorious and gruesome serial killing cases.

The Supreme Court of Canada rejected the 60-year-old pig farmer's contention that he didn't get a fair trial and said the evidence against him was so overwhelming the jury came to the only verdict it could.

Within hours of the ruling, deputy police chief Doug LePard of Vancouver apologized for the failure of police to "catch this monster sooner" and told reporters the case "will always haunt me."

The B.C. Crown also announced it would not proceed with 20 outstanding murder charges against Pickton on grounds he is already serving the maximum sentence and additional convictions would not add to his time behind bars.

Neil Mackenzie, a spokesman for the B.C. prosecutors, told reporters in Vancouver the Crown "expects" to take steps soon to stay, or to discontinue, the prosecutions.

The ruling marked the end of the legal road for Pickton, who was sentenced in 2007 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for a horrific killing spree at his Port Coquitlam farm, where the remains of his dismembered victims were found.

What the ruling doesn't do, however, is finish the ongoing investigation into women missing from Vancouver's bereft Downtown Eastside — and Pickton's possible involvement.

Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, the head of B.C.'s missing-women task force, noted Pickton confessed to an undercover officer planted in his cell that he was one murder short of reaching his goal of 50 killings, a number far higher than the 33 deaths police believe they have linked to him so far.

"Mr. Pickton made statements, that we have no reason to disbelieve, that he is responsible for 49 deaths," said Shinkaruk. "We're certainly actively investigating . . . to try to identify those 16 people. We do believe it's important for the families and the public to know if that's the number."

Shinkaruk said the task force is also investigating other suspects, who may have been involved in some of the deaths Pickton was responsible for, as well as cases not linked to Pickton at all, including the murder of three women in the Fraser Valley.

Police emphasized the task force, which has cost $122 million to date, still has 51 officers working for it.

The end of Pickton's appeal process also sparked another round of calls for a public inquiry into why it took so long to investigate and track down the killer of women involved in the sex trade on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

B.C. Attorney General Mike DeJong says he will review police reports that looked at whether there were mistakes made during the Pickton investigation but added that no decisions have yet been made on calling an inquiry.

"There are very compelling arguments for why a detailed examination should take place," he said. He said a decision on an inquiry will be made "soon."

LePard, the deputy police chief, said Vancouver police and RCMP support a public inquiry.

"We owe it to the victims," he said.

The Supreme Court justices were unanimous in their belief there had been no miscarriage of justice even though there were flaws in the judge's instructions to the jury and even though they split on their reasons for tossing out Pickton's appeals.

"Certainly, this was a long and difficult trial — but it was also a fair one," wrote Justice Louis LeBel. "Despite the errors . . . there was no miscarriage of justice occasioned by the trial proceedings.

"Mr. Pickton was entitled to the same measure of justice as any other person in this country. He received it. He is not entitled to more."

LeBel, writing on behalf of three justices, went further and said a "properly instructed jury likely would have convicted Mr. Pickton of first-degree rather than second-degree murder."

The appeal revolved around Pickton's complaint the trial judge moved the "goalposts" when, in response to a question from the jury on Day 6 of its deliberations, said jurors could convict the farmer if they found he had killed the women, or that he was otherwise an "active participant" in the carnage.

In his initial instructions, Judge James Williams said the jury had to acquit Pickton if they had reasonable doubts he was the sole killer.

Justice Louise Charron, writing on behalf of six of the justices, said the defence itself had widened the goalposts by arguing throughout the trial that other people visiting the farm — not Pickton — may have done the killings.

She said that by Pickton's own admission to police, he was the "head honcho" or "head guy," which implied the involvement of others "but not to the exclusion of the accused."

Charron characterized the judge's instructions as adequate for what the jury needed to know to assess Pickton's liability.

"This case was never about whether the accused had a minor role in the killing of victims," she wrote.

Lebel said Williams committed an error of law by not instructing the jury that it could convict Pickton on grounds he was "aiding and abetting" the murderous crimes by such a thing as luring women to the farm or giving them drugs.

The bottom line, though, was that the error in the instructions did not translate into a miscarriage of justice, he said.

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